SmallCaliberCentral

Just bought one. It is a G2 frame with a 14 inch tc 204 barrel. Hoping to shoot a few prarie dogs with it. Anyone mess with loads for this? Hoping to find a low velocity load that is accurate.

Built one on a Savage Bolt action pistol. NASTY recoil so I had to back WAY DOWN on the powder charge to make it half way comfortable to shoot. Deadly accurate but not that much fun to shoot. Even went with a Harrel's brake. Still not much fun and loud!
Finally set it back to 20 VT and it's much more fun to shoot.
The .204 in a long barrel is fun. You don't have to deal with recoil. Back way down for starters, work up slow and see what you can come up with.

Most PD and squirrel shooters I'm aware of that had Contenders ended up getting rid of them because of the great hassle of the break-open feature for this type of shooting. They all went with either bolt guns, AR's or falling block single shot rifles.

Trying to open/load/close a Contender from prone or the bench just doesn't cut it in a hot PD patch.....I watched a friend all through his ordeal dealing with his Contender......for exactly one trip. On the next one he had a nice new M700 in 204. Just sumthin' to consider for a dedicated PD or ground squirrel rifle.

I know there are much better ways of dispensing prarie dogs, I already have 3 cooper rifles a bench rest 22-250, and a savage 204. Coopers are in 223, 22-250 and 204. Just thought I'd give it a try shooting them with a pistol that's all. A new challenge you can call it.

Got my pistol today and had just enough time to mount a scope and get it on paper. So far pretty happy with the results. 27 gr of H335 32 zmax shot right at an inch at 100. Now I'd like to work down the load to lesson recoil to try to keep an eye on the target. Shot around 3200 fps.

I bet hunting groundhogs would be a lot of fun with with one of these. i think i found my next toy.

Hi ya'all....New Member here using a Contender with 14" bbl in 204 Ruger. My first experience with this caliber finds it is a bit fussy about how its reloaded, but when I figured it out I found a load that makes this set-up one sweet hog hunting outfit ! Here's my handgun pic and a group I shot at 253+ yards, and btw it wears a 2.5-7x Nichols scope ...
http://s268.photobucket.com/user/kingof ... 0Contender

Those are a couple of really nice looking Contenders guys!!

jd-- My Brother shoots groundhogs with a 14" Contender in 221FB. Man is that one sweet little rig!! He calls it The Bean Sweeper cause of the way it just mows the groundhogs down in the bean fields around here.

That reminds me of my other Contender a 5.7x28 I use for the 150 yard chip shots, and for squirrel.....
http://s268.photobucket.com/user/kingof ... 0x%20%2028